The media monopoly
The current movie musical hit "BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB" whose message can be interpreted to mean hope in perseverance was again turned around to disillusionment.
I had expected to see the AFRICAN Drummers who were paired originally to perform with the Cubans, but they were not there. What one heard was "the Africans got mixed up in PARIS, EUROPE, and could not make it to Havana One is told in the film. Rather astonishing. With that information and the destress under tone to it at their disposals, one may like to know what they did to rescue and bring those drummers to Havana?
Imagine how long we have had Highlife. Unlike CALYPSO, MAMBO, SALSA, MERENGUE and REGGAE, the world has never heard not seen HIGHLIFE splash - a biography of the rise of that genre put on screen. Various excuses are tendered for the exclusion of African music and the minimal distribution of it when they do. The one most brazen and comical among them which they tells is: "Europeans, anyway, do not understand what AFRICAN MUSIC IS SAYING!" At the same time they export their culture and music to Africa and the Africans are expected to understand, what the European music is saying! I find this excuse outrageous. This western assumption is not lost on us. After all the whites have captured and colonized and enslaved black people on their land, and forced them to learn and to acquire foreign tongue to interprete themselves. Indeed we are expected to understand what the white music is saying. The white selectively may not understand the black music, if they do feel so, that is that.
I say "don't mind them as we say here in AFRICA , this white arrogance is still part of the machinations of white supremists bent on putting down the black people. Otherwise one fails to see why white people cannot be taught to understand African music. The same way they taught the blacks to understand white music. Surely the whites are not above learning the black man`s music.
The appeal of music to the world is that it is an universal language. In other words this means you do not need to know the words to enjoy it.
Indeed there is so much going on in a piece of music that sometimes words become, absolutely irrelevant to the appreciation of it.
Any living being is capable of enjoying the music of other peoples whether one understands the words or not. So long as one can feel the rhythm and pulse of the music! If the above is to be believed and to go by, then we can see, that that excuse does not hold any water. Of course, and as we all should know , putting aside the bullshit, white people, feel the black man's music and can enjoy it.
American and European music rules the air waves. The ubiquitous CNN based in ATLANTA, USA could be heard loud and clear anywhere round the world, inundating, the people of Africa with American media propaganda and culture. Whereas there is not an AFRICAN RADIO OR TELEVISION station in Africa south of the Sahara that can beam its transmission to the Northern hemisphere and is heard by the people in the countries there. There is no kind of reciprocity with the African medias what so ever, that we can see outside of what is written on papers.
This media monopoly is worst than any slavery imaginable.
The history of the cultural contact between the white, and the black race is loaded largely with the exploits of the conquering white heros civilizing blacks who have nothing to offer than to slavishly obeying the orders of the white slavers.
Second slavery is a system which gives one a false sense of being and freedom. While infact, its policy is to subjugate a people and dictate the pace of their development through Teleguiding and remote control.
So what is Africa doing to checkmate this cultural and media domination?
From all the indications as we can see, the leadership in Africa is not prepared or ready to confront the white powers, not to endanger their power base at home and favour abroad.
Nigeria a large market in the continent is starved out of the bounty of the music and the entertainment market. So the game goes on African musicians and artistes will just have to contend their ambitions to the crumbs falling from the benevolent tables of the whites and keep in the shadows.